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SAN JOSE (KCBS) – Despite the uncertainty over state funding, schools in the San Jose Unified School District will be in session for a full 180 days and there will be no teacher furloughs.

School bells will ring in the fall-winter session on Aug. 15, and the absence of furlough days means the winter break will start five days earlier than last year on Dec. 16, said district spokeswoman Karen Fuqua.

“It was not only a loss of instruction for students, but also it was a loss of employee’s compensation. So it wasn’t like a day off for anybody,” she said.

KCBS’ Mike Colgan and Holly Quan Report:

Silicon Valley’s Largest School District Says Goodbye To Furlough Days

Fuqua said the school board assumed state funding would remain flat compared to last year, and built a full school year around the availability of federal stimulus money and adult education dollars.

The budget passed by the California legislature on Wednesday but subsequently vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown would have reduced overall funding for K-12 education and community colleges.

Both public school districts and community colleges could see $3 billion worth of payments from the state deferred and another $500 million canceled entirely.

No matter the size of the cuts, continued reduction in funding will only widen the chasm between urban and suburban school districts, said Bruce Cain, director of the University of California Washington Center.

“It’s the inner city schools that really suffer when that happens because they don’t have the capacity to do the private fundraising that many of the middle and upper middle class communities can do.”

Cain said school districts in affluent communities often have nonprofit foundations that can take over responsibility for programs such as sports or science.

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